Application installation method and mobile device

ABSTRACT

An application installation method for a mobile device is provided. In the method, the application is analyzed to obtain a supporting display format. When the supporting display format of the application meets a first display format of the mobile device, the application is installed. When the supporting display format of the application only supports a second display format of an electronic device, a notification is issued to warn that the application only supports the second display format. When a continuously installing signal is received, the application is installed. When a termination signal is received, the installation of the application is terminated.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefits of U.S. provisionalapplication Ser. No. 61/625,099, filed on Apr. 17, 2012 and Taiwanapplication serial no. 102107546, filed on Mar. 4, 2013. The entirety ofeach of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporatedby reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present disclosure relates to an application installation method anda mobile device. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to amethod for a hybrid portable device to install an application therein.

2. Description of Related Art

With the development of technologies, portable devices, such as cellphones, smart phones, personal digital assistant (PDA) phones, tabletpersonal computers (tablet PCs), and notebook computers, have beenbroadly used in our daily life. Operating systems on these portabledevices, such as Apple iOS and Google Android, allow users to installthird-party applications. Namely, a user can directly downloadthird-party applications onto a portable device through the Internet.

The fields of aforementioned application are various include business,travel, personal management, project management, etc. Some applicationsare designed for particular display format. For instance, someapplications only support the display formats of the tablet PCs andcannot support the display formats of the smart phones or someapplications only support the display formats of the smart phones butcannot support the display format of the tablet PCs. Hence, when theapplication which is designed for a particular display format isinstalled in the portable device of which the display device is notsupported by the application, usually, the application cannot beexecuted normally or the application may be abnormally terminated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present disclosure provides an application installationmethod and a mobile device which are capable of marking the hardwaresupporting abilities of the application while the application isinstalled and sorting the object corresponding to the application intothe application list corresponding to the hardware supporting abilitiesof the application. Therefore, when selecting the object to launch thecorresponding application, the user can easily realize whether thelaunched application supports the mobile device in use. Further, itavoids the mobile device from launching the application which does notsupport the mobile device and the problems of failure operation orautomatically shutdown of the mobile device due to launching theapplication can be overcome.

The disclosure provides an application installation method for a mobiledevice to install an application. In the method, the application isanalyzed to obtain a supporting display format of the application. Whenthe supporting display format of the application meets a first displayformat of the mobile device, the application is installed. When thesupporting display format of the application only support a seconddisplay format of an electronic device, a notification is issued to warnthe application only supports the second display format, the applicationis installed as a continuously installing signal is received, and aninstallation of the application is terminated when a termination signalis received.

A mobile device comprises a storage unit and a processor. The storageunit stores an application. The processor analyzes the application toobtain a supporting display format of the application and installs theapplication when the supporting display format of the application meetsa first display format of the mobile device, and, when the supportingdisplay format of the application only support a second display formatof an electronic device, the processor issues a notification to warn theapplication only supports the second display format, installs theapplication when a continuously installing signal is received andterminates an installation of the application when a termination signalis received.

Accordingly, in the application installation method and mobile device ofthe present case, before the application is installed, the applicationis analyzed to obtain it's hardware supporting abilities. When thehardware supporting abilities shows that the application does notsupport the display format of the display device of the mobile device,the user is notified to determine whether the installation of theapplication continues or should be terminated. Moreover, at the time theapplication is installed, the hardware supporting abilities of theapplication are recorded/labeled and the object corresponding to theinstalled application is classified into the application listcorresponding to the hardware supporting abilities of the installedapplication. Hence, once the user selects the object to launch thecorresponding application, the user clearly realizes whether thelaunched application supports the mobile device in use, which avoid themobile device from launching the application which does not support themobile device in use and the problems of failure operation orautomatically shutdown of the mobile device due to launching theapplication can be overcome.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended toprovide further explanation of the disclosure as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitutea part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of thedisclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram, schematically illustrating anapplication installation method according to one preferred embodiment ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a mobile device according to oneembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a display device of a mobiledevice which displays an application list according to one embodiment ofthe disclosure.

FIGS. 4A through 4B are schematic diagrams of a hybrid portable devicebefore and after assembly according to one embodiment of the disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram, schematically illustrating anapplication installation method according to one preferred embodiment ofthe disclosure. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a mobile deviceaccording to one embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1 andFIG. 2, the mobile device 200 of the present embodiment comprises astorage unit 202 and a processor 204. The mobile device 200 can be, forexample, a cell phone, a smart phone or a personal digital assistant.The processor 204 can be, for example, a micro-controller, an embeddedcontroller or a central processing unit (CPU). Moreover, the mobiledevice 200 can be, for example, coupled to/combined with an electronicdevice to form a hybrid portable device, such as a tablet personalcomputer (tablet PC) or a notebook computer. The electronic device has adisplay device and can receive the control signal sent from the mobiledevice so as to display frames on its display device after theelectronic device is coupled to the mobile device 200. It should benoticed that the first display format of the mobile device 200 isdifferent from the second display format of the electronic device (i.e.the display format of the display device of the electronic device). Moreclearly, the size of the display device of the electronic device islarger than that of the display device of the mobile device 200 and theresolution of the display device of the electronic device is higher thanthat of the display device of the mobile device 200.

More specifically, the mobile device 200 can be coupled to theelectronic device to form a hybrid portable device. FIGS. 4A through 4Bare schematic diagrams of a hybrid portable device before and afterassembly according to one embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in FIG.4A and FIG. 4B, the mobile device 400 is coupled to an electronic device600 through a connection port 402 so that the mobile device 400 and theelectronic device 600 together form a hybrid portable device 404. Forinstance, in the present embodiment, the mobile device 400 can be asmart phone or a personal digital assistant and has a display device 408with resolution of about 480×320 or 960×640. Further, the electronicdevice 600 has a display device 602 with resolution of about 1024×768,2048×1536 or 2560×1600. The mobile device 400 moves along the slide 600b at the back surface 600 a of the electronic device 600 opposite to thefront surface on which the display device 602 is mounted so as to insertthe slot (not shown) at the back surface 600 a and to be couple with theelectronic device 600 through the connection port 402 to form a hybridportable device 404 (as shown in FIG. 4B). The hybrid portable device204 can be, for example, a tablet personal computer or a notebookcomputer.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, in the step S101 which is after anapplication is downloaded and is stored in the storage unit 202, theprocessor 204 analyzes the application to obtain the supporting displayformat of the application. That is, the mobile device 200 of the presentembodiment allows the user to download various applications withdifferent types and when the installation procedure of the applicationis initiated, the processor 204 analyzes the application in advance torecognize the display format which is supported by the application.Then, in the step S105, the processor 204, according to the supportingdisplay format of the application, determines whether the applicationmeets the display format of the display device of the mobile device 200.The aforementioned supporting display format includes the displayinformation (such as resolution of the display device, displaydimensions, display color depth, etc.) indicating that which format orsystem of mobile device is supported by the application.

For instance, as for the tablet PC-specific application, the supportingdisplay format records that the resolutions which the applicationsupported include 1024×768, 2048×1536 or 2560×1600 or records that thedisplay dimensions which the application supported include 7″, 10.1″ or11.6″. Further, as for the application which meets both of the tablet PCand mobile cell, the supporting display format records that theresolutions which the application supports include 480×320, 960×640 and1024×768 or records that the display dimensions which the applicationsupports include 3.5˜3.8″, 4.5˜4.9″, 7″, 10.1″ or 11.6″. Since theapplication can be the tablet PC-specific application only supportingthe table PC or a common application supporting both of the tablet PCand mobile cell, the supporting display format of the application isanalyzed before the application is installed and, in the followingsteps, it is determined whether the application is continuouslyinstalled according to the supporting display format of the application.

In the step S111, when the supporting display format of the applicationmeets the display format of the display device of the mobile device 200,the processor 204 starts to install the application.

However, in the step S115, when the supporting display format of theapplication does not support the display format of the display device ofthe mobile device 200 (e.g. the application only supports largedimension display or the display with high resolution), the processor204 issues a notification to warn that the application does not supportthe display format of the display device of the mobile device 200.Thereafter, in the step S121, it is determined whether any signal(including the continuously installing signal or a termination signal)is received. When receiving the continuously installing signal, theprocessor 204 installs the application (step S111). Alternatively, inthe step S125, when receiving the termination signal, the processor 204terminates the installation of the application.

In one embodiment, when the continuously installing signal is received,the step S111 of installing the application further comprises that theprocessor 204 records a utilization limitation of the application (stepS131), and the utilization limitation includes that the application onlysupports a portion of the display formats (e.g. it records that theapplication does not support the display format of the display device ofthe mobile device 200 or the application only supports large dimensiondisplay or the display with high resolution). In another embodiment, theprocessor 204 recording the utilization limitation (step S131) furthercomprises giving the application a flag corresponding to the supportingdisplay format by the application (e.g. the application only supportsthe large dimension display or the display with high resolution). Moreclearly, the application can be set to be corresponding to the flagaccording to the type of the device supported by the application.

For instance, the supporting display format of the application recordsthat the resolution the application supports is 1024×768, which meansthe application only supports the device (such as the tablet PC) havingthe display device with the resolution of about 1024×768. Hence, theflag of the application is set to be a first value “P” (which will besimplified as the first value P in the following description). In otherwords, in the present embodiment, if the content recorded in thesupporting display format of the application meets that the applicationonly supports the tablet PC, the flag of the application is set to bethe first value P. Moreover, the present embodiment does not limit theexpression of the flag. That is, the flag can be numbers, word strings,symbols or symbols which are capable of distinguish the supportingdisplay format from one another.

In another embodiment, according to the flag, the processor 204 furthersorts/classifies an object corresponding to the installed applicationinto the application list corresponding to the flag (step S135). FIG. 3is a schematic diagram showing a display device of a mobile device whichdisplays an application list according to one embodiment of thedisclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, a display device 302 of a mobile device300 displays an application list 304. The application list 304 onlyshows the objects corresponding to the application which supports thedisplay device with the resolution of 1024×768. For instance, when thesupporting display format of the application only supports the displaydevice with the resolution of 1024×768 (i.e. the application onlysupports the large dimension display device or the display with highresolution), the processor 204 records the flag of the application to bethe first value P when the application is installed. Then, the processor204, according to the flag, classifies the object 306 corresponding tothe application into the application list 304 corresponding to the firstvalue P.

Altogether, in the application installation method and mobile device ofthe present disclosure, before the application is installed, theapplication is analyzed to obtain it's hardware supporting abilities.When the hardware supporting abilities shows that the application doesnot support the display format of the display device of the mobiledevice, the user is notified to determine whether the installation ofthe application continues or should be terminated. Moreover, at the timethe application is installed, the hardware supporting abilities of theapplication are recorded/labeled and the object corresponding to theinstalled application is classified into the application listcorresponding to the hardware supporting abilities of the installedapplication. Hence, once the user selects the object to launch thecorresponding application, the user clearly realizes whether thelaunched application supports the mobile device in use, which avoid themobile device from launching the application which does not support themobile device in use and the problems of failure operation orautomatically shutdown of the mobile device due to launching theapplication can be overcome.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made to the structure of the presentdisclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.In view of the foregoing descriptions, it is intended that the presentdisclosure covers modifications and variations of this disclosure ifthey fall within the scope of the following claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An application installation method for a mobiledevice and an electronic device, wherein the mobile device has a firstdisplay format and the electronic device has a second display format,the method comprising: analyzing an application to obtain a supportingdisplay format of the application when the application is installed;installing the application when the supporting display format meets afirst display format; when the supporting display format does notsupport the first display format and support the second display format:issuing a notification to warn the application only supports the seconddisplay format; installing the application when a continuouslyinstalling signal is received; and terminating an installation of theapplication when a termination signal is received.
 2. The applicationinstallation method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device and theelectronic device are coupled to each other to form a hybrid portabledevice.
 3. The application installation method of claim 1, wherein themobile device comprises a cell phone, a smart phone or a personaldigital assistant.
 4. The application installation method of claim 3,wherein the step of installing the application when the continuouslyinstalling signal is received further comprises recording a utilizationlimitation of the application, wherein the utilization limitationincludes that the application only supports the second display format.5. The application installation method of claim 4, wherein the step ofrecording the utilization limitation of the application comprises:giving the application a flag, wherein the flag corresponds to thesecond supporting display format by the application.
 6. The applicationinstallation method of claim 5, further comprising, according to theflag, classifying an object corresponding to the installed applicationinto an application list corresponding to the flag.
 7. A mobile device,comprising: a storage unit, storing an application; a processor, whereinthe processor analyzes the application to obtain a supporting displayformat of the application and installs the application when thesupporting display format of the application meets a first displayformat of the mobile device, and, when the supporting display format ofthe application only support a second display format of an electronicdevice, the processor issues a notification to warn the application onlysupports the second display format, installs the application when acontinuously installing signal is received and terminates aninstallation of the application when a termination signal is received.8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the mobile device and theelectronic device are coupled to each other to form a hybrid portabledevice.
 9. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the mobile devicecomprises a cell phone, a smart phone or a personal digital assistant.10. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein, when installing theapplication as the continuously installing signal is received, theprocessor further records a utilization limitation of the application,wherein the utilization limitation includes that the application onlysupports the second display format.
 11. The mobile device of claim 10,wherein the processor recording the utilization limitation of theapplication further comprises: giving the application a flag, whereinthe flag corresponds to the second supporting display format by theapplication.
 12. The mobile device of claim 11, wherein the processorfurther, according to the flag, classifies an object corresponding tothe installed application into an application list corresponding to theflag.